Sudan Says Red Cross Worked 'Outside' Mandate

Sudan on Sunday said it suspended activities of the international Red Cross because it violated guidelines for working in the war-torn country.

"We observe that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is doing activities outside of its mandate under international law and the agreement with the government of Sudan," said a statement from Sudan's Humanitarian Aid Commission, which confirmed it suspended ICRC's activities as of February 1.

It is the latest restriction on foreign aid workers in the country, where rebels are fighting the government in Darfur, the Kordofan region and Blue Nile state.

The ICRC on Saturday said the HAC informed it in writing about the suspension over "some technical issues" related to work the ICRC hoped to undertake this year in Sudan.

HAC's statement said the ICRC should work only through the Sudanese Red Crescent Society.

But the Red Crescent complained "that the ICRC did some work without sharing that work with the Red Crescent," a HAC source told Agence France Presse.

A statement from the ICRC on Sunday gave no details about the reason for the suspension.

"We are confident that the technical issues cited by the Commission as the reason for this suspension will be quickly settled," said Jean-Christophe Sandoz, head of the ICRC's delegation in Sudan.

On its website the ICRC calls Sudan's Red Crescent Society its "primary partner in Sudan."

As a neutral intermediary, the Red Cross has facilitated the handover and repatriation of numerous prisoners held by armed groups in the troubled Darfur region.

The agency has also provided health services, food aid, seeds, tools, hand pumps and other assistance which helped more than 1.5 million people in restive parts of the country last year.

The HAC on Sunday said it is committed to enabling the humanitarian work of national, international and United Nations organizations "according to their commitment under the law and the procedures governing humanitarian activities in Sudan."

Sudan controls access to South Kordofan and Blue Nile, where rebellions began more than two years ago and where the U.N. says more than one million people have been displaced or severely affected.

There has been no aid access to rebel-held areas of the two states since 2011.

In 2012, the HAC expelled seven international non-governmental organizations from impoverished eastern Sudan, arguing that some projects were badly managed, of poor quality and too costly.

That followed the revocation in 2009 of licenses for 13 foreign aid groups working in Darfur shortly after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for President Omar al-Bashir for alleged war crimes.

Half of Sudan's 19 states are affected by conflict, and 6.1 million people are estimated to need humanitarian assistance, the U.N. has said.